iClickers

iClicker (commonly called“clickers”) is the proprietary name for the classroom response system (CRS) supported at the U of T. Clickers work in combination with presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote to allow you to pose multiple-choice questions to your students and view an instantaneous histogram of their responses. Clickers can be an excellent tool to increase student engagement, especially in large classes, where they can be used to encourage student reflection on course material, prompt student-student interaction, and provide you with immediate access to feedback on student understanding of course material. Clickers are especially well-suited to large classes, and can be used in the U of T’s highest enrolment classes.

Instructors are encouraged to enable the iClicker integration tool in their Portal (Blackboard) courses. Students can register their remotes through the iClicker integration. Instructors can easily download the class roster and student registration from their Portal course, and easily upload iClicker session data into the Portal’s Grade Center. For more information please see http://portalinfo.utoronto.ca/content/iclicker.

The iClicker integration allows students who have purchased used iClicker remotes to register their remotes directly within the Portal and avoid the possibility of a $6.99 used remote registration fee. Note: As of December 31, 2014, students who purchase a used iClicker remote will be charged a one-time fee of $6.99 if they register their remote with iclicker.com. For information on registering iClicker remotes please see the iClicker registration page.

All iClicker remotes will be shipped with a complimentary digital access code to use the iClicker GO app. Students who purchase a remote can use this code to try iClicker GO for a semester at no charge.

The University continues to provide full support for iClicker remotes and base units for use in classes.

Instructors who are interested in using iClicker REEF in advance of an institutional license should treat the use of this product in accordance with current University guidelines on using third-party, cloud-based services.

An important update is now available for the iClicker audience response system. New firmware has been released for the base receivers used to collect voting information. It is recommended that all bases be updated to the latest firmware version (5.04) to take advantage of the following new features and enhancements:

Faster vote gathering. The polling engine has been tuned to better handle vote collection in large classes.Self-paced polling. The latest firmware is required to make use of the new Self-Paced Polling feature in iClicker v6.2 software.Backward compatible. Firmware 5.04 is backward compatible with iClicker 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.0 and 6.1 software versions.

The iClicker Base Firmware Updater is a Windows application that allows you to update the firmware of any iClicker base currently running firmware version 4.03 or newer. If you received an iClicker kit after September 2011, the base firmware can be updated using the following instructions.

Instructions for Updating Receiver Firmware

Please note that the updater application is currently available for Windows only. If you don’t have access to a Windows machine, please bring your base to one of the campus offices listed below.

STEP 1: Download the iClicker Base Firmware Updater application.

STEP 2: Extract the downloaded zip file to a location on your local machine.

STEP 3: Navigate to the folder where the package was extracted and double-click the iclicker Base Updater iclicker Base Updater icon to run the program.

STEP 4: Connect the base receiver to a USB port on your computer.

STEP 5: Click the Check for Update button.

STEP 6: The program will search for updates and then ask you to confirm whether you want to update the firmware. Click Yes to initiate the upgrade.

If you receive a message indicating that the device firmware cannot be updated, please return the base to one of the following three campus locations to receive a new unit: